Dispatches from the memory of Books

Just finished reading Alexander McCall Smith's "Friends, lovers, chocolate". It's part of the Sunday Philosophy Club series, and is set in Edinburgh (unlike his No 1 Ladies Detective series, which is set in Botswana). This is the second book in the series, and I found it better than the first one.

Thirty-something, unmarried, and independently wealthy Isabel Dalhousie is the Editor of the academic journal "Review of Applied Ethics". She's curious aout everything, and, being a philosopher, she thinks a lot about the mundane things which other people would easily dismiss, and this usually lands her in interesting and often peculiar situations. There's some interesting philosophical discourse about receiving somebody else's cellular memory, as a result of a heart transplant, and a mystery to be solved.

The portrayal of Edinburgh's sometimes stuffy, village-like atmosphere is spot-on. Having visited Edinburgh only once before, even I recognized some of the references to place names and coffee shops scattered throughout the book. Don't know if lovers of the Ladies Detective series will enjoy this book, though.

Posted by HannesB at 7:32 AM Comments